The present invention relates to a dental handpiece, and more particularly to a handpiece that may be used interchangeably as an irrigator, an aerator, an applicator or as an evacuator for treating a patient's mouth.
Past dental practice has included the use of a three-way syringe. An air tube and a water tube join together at a handpiece. Two operating buttons were provided on the handpiece body to allow activation by the dentist of the air or water. By depressing the air button, air flows out of the tip into the appropriate area of the patient's mouth to dry the field of operation. By depressing the water button, a passive flow of water is emitted to clean and float away debris and congestion from the field of operation. By depressing both buttons simultaneously, a spray of air and water may be emitted, which flushes away debris, which can then be vacuumed from the oral cavity using a separate high volume evacuation hand piece.
Later procedures supplied removable air/water tips to allow for sterilization. Prior to that development the tips were disinfected and cleaned by simply wiping them with alcohol. The advancement of supplying removable tips permitted sterilization by means of steam or heat procedures. However, if done with the appropriate frequency, the tips became clogged and unusable in several months.
With the rising incident of communicable diseases, such as hepatitis and acquired immune deficiency syndrome, extreme care is advocated to prevent the transfer of either viral or bacterial infection from one patient to the next. This need has resulted in the use of disposable or throwaway dental tips.
Although dental handpieces have undergone improvements to resolve difficulties encountered by dentists, shortcomings still persist. One such shortcoming is the inability to alternately irrigate, applicate, aerate and evacuate with a single disposable or semi-disposable hand held tool. Examples of the prior art devices have been disclosed in Brass et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,907, Esrock U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,433, and Baker U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,310.